The National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS) has been organizing with support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, training programmes to provide the orientation and planning skills required for scientists/ technocrats of the country, and in particular, to offer views of the broader scientific, economic, social and cultural milieu in which the Indian scientific enterprise could develop in this century. The large pool of scientific and technical manpower in many Indian institutions has not had the benefit of either induction training or a system of regular in-service training that are available to other cadre-based services. In order to bridge this gap, this Programme which is now first in the series for scientist-administrators and technologists at the Senior Level with 15 years of experience and above from various scientific organizations in the country will focus on the theme "Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy". The Course will be conducted during March 13-24, 2017. Consistent with the mission of NIAS, its courses emphasize the development of leadership qualities through the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge.

About the Programme

This program will impart training to participants on how science policies are important and are evolved and what is the government's role in the science and technology innovation system. Given the challenges that lie ahead in India's S&T programmes, this training capsule will aim to equip those planning careers in science and technology and related areas. Similarly, the course will dwell on how S&T policies are formulated when government and the society/public look increasingly to experts to do more for the society than conduct research and produce knowledge, which helps protect against the misuse or unintended consequences of science and technology. This training program will impart sufficient knowledge to participants so that they can contribute to decision making related to S&T issues in public, private and civic settings. The training programme includes lectures by eminent speakers, presentations by the participants, group discussions, project work, week end technical visits, public lectures, cultural programme, 'Yoga' practice from health point of view and feedback. The defining feature of lecture pattern in our courses consists of interactive sessions with distinguished faculty drawn from different organizations and occupations. The general format is a presentation for 45 minutes followed by lively discussions for 45 minutes. The participants would be encouraged to interact as widely as possible with the speakers.

The course will address broadly the following topics:

Origin, evolution and history of science policy;

Role of government in regulating, promoting and financing science;

Science and Ethics;

Science and IPR;

S&T in advancement of national goals;

Science and Diplomacy;

Science and gender;

Perception and acceptance of risk in evolution of science policy;

Influence of social, cultural and political forces on the production of scientific knowledge;

Science Policy and Security;

Science Policy, Education and Culture;

Advocacy, Special interest or Action Groups in influencing science policies;

Science policy in global context: the rise of China, Korea in S&T field;

Discussion on US National Genome Plan Initiative (Five Year Plan: 2014-18);

Discussion on Moon Mission, Mars programme, Antarctica program; etc.

More information about the lectures will be provided to the nominated participants.

Infrastructure:

NIAS has unique infrastructural facilities like accommodation, dining hall, library, auditorium (lecture hall), rest rooms, browsing centre, campus with good ambience. Since the programme is residential, NIAS will arrange boarding and lodging facilities. In view of this, it is necessary that all the participants stay in the campus. In addition, the outstation participants will be provided with transport for their pick-up and drop.

Nominations:

The participants will range from various institutions like DST, DRDO, DAE, ISRO, ICMR, ICAR, CSIR, DSIR and Universities. No participation fee is involved for attending this essentially residential programme. Only the travel expenses from Head Quarters to Bangalore and back are to be met by the nominating organizations as stipulated by DST. Participation in this Programme is limited to 25 individuals.

Paris, 31 January—UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP) will launch the Water Information Network System (WINS), an open access interactive database, on 31 January. With continuous updates and new data, WINS aims to become a global reference on the water cycle allowing users to create tailor-made maps incorporating information about arid zones, rainfall, transboundary water basins and irrigation.

With data from global sources such as AQUASTAT, WHO/UNICEF joint monitoring programme and UNSTAT, and other UNESCO partners, WINS will bring together as much validated information concerning the water cycle as possible. It will also feature key UNESCO programmes concerned by water-related issues, notably World Heritage, Biosphere Reserves and UNESCO Global Geoparks.

Users will be able to visualize and generate tailor-made products to meet their specific interests. WINS will moreover facilitate the exchange of data among stakeholders, interdisciplinary cooperation and the creation of networks.

The development of WINS follows on a resolution adopted by the IHP's Intergovernmental Council in June 2016 to help Member States implement the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal concerning access to water and sanitation.

Giri Institute of Development Studies (GIDS) is organizing a Training Programme on Social Science Research Methodologyfor Research Scholars and Faculty Members belonging to SC and Marginalized Groups (ST/OBC/Minorities) during 24-30 March 2017. The Programme will provide a unique opportunity to the participants for an intensive interaction with the well-known social scientists of the country. The young social science researchers and teachers from colleges, universities and research institutes belonging to any of the above social groups interested in pursuing research in social sciences would constitute the targeted audience of this programme. A batch of about 30 participants would be selected based on all India basis and their suitability. GIDS will provide DA and TA (upto III Tier AC) of selected participants through a shortest route. The Institute will also provide moderate boarding and lodging facilities. Interested candidates may send their application in the prescribed format downloadable from GIDS website along with latest CV to Dr. Chittaranjan Senapati, Programme Coordinator by e-mail: crsenapati@gmail.com or gids.general@gmail.com; Contact: (M) +91-8188823673 latest by 10 February 2017.

Objective and Themes:

1.To acquaint the research scholars and faculties with the philosophical and theoretical dimensions of the recent development in social sciences research with a special focus on developing societies;

2.To make them understand how to recognize a research problem, formulate research questions or hypotheses and determine research objectives along with other components of a research proposal;

3.To facilitate them to acquire knowledge about different methods of data collection and tools of data handling;

4.To enhance the capacities/abilities of the participants in understanding the applicability of various qualitative and quantitative techniques in social sciences research; and

5.To engage them in preparing a minor field survey based report/monograph of few pages to assess their understanding that they accrue from the programme

Friday, January 27, 2017

UNESCO Communication and Information Weekly Newsletter

UNESCO invites the governments of Member States, in consultation with their National Commissions, as well as international and regional professional non-governmental organizations, active in the field of press freedom, to nominate candidates for next year's UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.

Brussels, 26 January 2017. UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Frank La Rue, visited Brussels, Belgium to speak at the symposium #SpreadNoHate co-organized by the European Union External Action Service and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, and met with senior representatives of EU institutions.

UNESCO, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), is pleased to invite contributions from the international community of scholars to the 2017 Academic Research Conference on Safety of Journalists. The academic conference, from 3 to 4 May 2017, is a special academic session which will be held alongside UNESCO's main celebration of World Press Freedom Day 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) will hold an informal meeting of its Council members and donor countries on 25 January 2017 at UNESCO's Headquarters in Paris, France. This consultation will allow for further discussion on new initiatives launched by the programme as well as on IPDC governance issues and the upcoming evaluation of the Programme.

UNESCO launches a call for proposals to develop and finalize an elaborated set of Internet Universality Indicators through a global multi-stakeholder consultation online and offline within a one-year time frame from April 2017 to April 2018. The Organization therefore invites interested researchers, institutions, research consortiums, entities and organizations to submit their proposals, according to the General Terms of Reference by email to internetstudy@unesco.org. The deadline for submitting is 28 February 2017, before noon (CET). For further enquiries, you may contact Ms Xianhong Hu and Mr Josselyn Guillarmou.

According to UNESCO, 101 journalists were killed in the pursuit of a story in 2016, which on average constitutes one casualty every four days. This represents an increase when compared to the average annual trend over the previous decade (2006-2015), set forth in the latest UNESCO Director-General's Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity published in November 2016, where every five days a media worker paid the ultimate toll for his or her work.

National Productivity Council (under Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India) is observing "Productivity Week" during 12th to 18th February, 2017. The theme of productivity week is "Waste to Profit – 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle)". A workshop on 3Rs will be organized on 13th February 2017 at NPC Conference Hall, New Delhi. In connection with this, NPC in collaboration with Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. of India has decided to award "Certificates of Excellence in 3Rs" in different categories on 13th February, 2017.

National Productivity Council (NPC) of India, founded on 12th February, 1958, with mission to promote productivity for socio-economic development of the country, has been organizing observance of its Foundation Day as "Productivity Day" and the ensuing week as "Productivity Week" throughout the country. It has been decided to adopt "Waste to Profit - 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse & Recycle)" as the main theme of the Productivity Week for the year 2017.

Ideas and innovations for breakthroughs to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

An initiative of Future Earth, The University of Tokyo and Stockholm Resilience Centre

Future Earth and the Stockholm Resilience Centre are launching a call for Sustainable Development Goal Labs (SDG Labs) in advance of the Resilience 2017 conference and International Conference on Sustainability Science, which will be held back to back in Stockholm 21-26 August. We are looking for brilliant ideas with potential to make major breakthroughs on the SDGs. The outcomes of the SDG Labs will be presented on 24 August during the joint "Ideas and Innovation" policy day for policymakers, business, researchers and media.

The SDG Labs are multi-stakeholder processes to catalyse transformation in institutions, systems and sectors of society, for example the global food system, international governance, inequality and poverty, or ecosystem services. The purpose of the SDG labs is to generate prototype solutions to complex problems. We want to encourage innovative ways to overcome lock-ins and plant seeds of change with potential for transformative impact. By "prototype solutions" we mean innovations that can fundamentally change the systems that created the problem in the first place. This may be social, ecological or technological innovations, or, more likely, a combination of the three.

We plan to provide up to $5k seed funding for 5-7 labs, but if you can run a lab with less or no funding, or if you already have funding for a similar activity - great. We will run more labs.

The labs can take place anywhere in the world but must be held before 21 August 2017. The outcomes of the labs will be presented at a special science-policy session of the two conferences in Stockholm on 24 August 2017. Ultimately, our vision is for the labs to feed into the UN's High Level Political Forum (HLPF) in 2018 which is framed as "Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies". The HLPF will specifically focus around the following themes:

SDG 6 Clean water and sanitationSDG 7 Affordable and Clean EnergySDG 11 Sustainable Cities and CommunitiesSDG 12 Responsible Consumption and ProductionSDG 15 Life on Land

SDG Labs aligned with these themes will be prioritized, but we are open to all ideas. Given the nature of transformation, and idea generation, we have a flexible approach to SDG Lab design. As a rough guideline, think about a 1 or 2 day activity/workshop/hackathon designed to produce new thinking or prototypes. We would expect, though, that an SDG Lab would engage relevant expertise from, for example academia, policy, private sector, media, technology and innovation to address a specific issue related to the themes above.

To get you thinking, a lab on moving the world to a low-meat diet would be exciting, relevant and essential to achieving SDGs. Or, an initiative to develop new algorithms to measure SDG indicators from satellite data, or other "big data". Or, how about exploring how the textile industry can meet the SDGs. Or, what are the new financial instruments or economic models that could support transformation.

Applying

Online application form here. When you submit your application include:

The title of the SDG LabWhat is the problem/s you are trying to solve and how does it link to the definitions of transformation?Describe the co-design process and the intended participants. What sectors or groups do they represent and why are they invited?Describe the facilitation of the co-design process. Which method will be used and who will facilitate?What are the potential innovations/prototypes and impact of these? Describe how the innovations/prototypes are meant to fundamentally change human-environmental interactions and contribute to large-scale changes.What would be signs of success?Location (can be anywhere in the world)Expected cost (if you require less than $5k we can sponsor more labs)

We recognize applicants may require additional funding to support activities and encourage you to seek it. We welcome applicants who already have funding for a similar activity/process within our time horizon. And we welcome applicants who don't require funding at all.

Background

In August 2017, Stockholm will host two major conferences back to back: the Resilience 2017 conference (21-24), organised by the Stockholm Resilience Centre and International Conference on Sustainability Science (24-26 Aug), sponsored by Future Earth. These conferences will be linked together with a science-policy-practice day on 24 August. This day will be a dialogue for pathways for sustainable and resilient societies. The SDG Labs with be complemented by SDG sessions organised by Future Earth's Knowledge Action Networks.

The SDG Labs outcomes will form a central part of the policy day. The SDG Lab concept has emerged from the Transformation Labs (T-Labs) pioneered by the Stockholm Resilience Centre for the Transformation Conference series.

The T-Labs are an example of "change labs". "Change labs" have primarily been used in North America and Western Europe, but the idea is spreading, for example, South Africa's RLabs.

For more details on the background and a "how to" guide to run these labs see the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation and Resilience "Social Innovation Lab Guide".

We are keen to experiment with different approaches. We expect that the ways in which the SDG-Labs are designed and facilitated will need to differ based on the specific outcomes envisaged by applicants. We hope, however, that the key considerations above, and a focus on the role of innovation in contribution to transformations to sustainability, will be central to work in all hubs.

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

National Seminar on Folk Philosophy in South Asia: Exploring the Cosmic and Mundane in the Folklore

Date: 25 -26 March 2017

Organized by Banasthali University in collaboration with South Asian University

Venue: Banasthali University, Tonk, Rajasthan, India

Calls for Papers

The proposed seminar seeks to bring together researches on various aspects of folklore from across the regions of South Asia contributing to the idea of folk philosophy dealing with key philosophical issues such as cosmology, myths, deities, ritual performances, material relations, everyday life inter alia. The key objective is to offer the possibility of making humble contribution to non- western paradigms of knowledge production- a much needed imperative in the time of cultural globalization. The seminar connects philosophical with folkloric in order to enrich the domains of philosophical inquiries in South Asia. Thematic areas include:

Gender and Caste issues in Folklore of Tribal and Peasant Society from across the region

Submission of Abstract: Send us an abstract of 500 words latest by 30th January 2017 and first draft by 10th of February 2017. The registration fee will be charged on selection of abstract, from academicians (Rs 1500) & student scholars (Rs 1000). For abstract and paper submission & any queries or information, write us at philosophyfolk@gmail.com.